Senator
'Senator' During the rise of the Empire, new tactics and troops were developed to crush human dissidents and eliminate the Barbarian threat. These tactics gave birth to the soldiers called legionnaires who were usually equipped with large shields and javelins. Newly recruited legionnaires were placed next to veterans to learn the art of war. This system was very effective against the humans the legions were supposed to fight, but its success against other forces present in Elysium has been more varied. The legionnaire is a formidable soldier by human standards. Their large shield is more effective than most shields found in Elysium and the javelin can be used from a distance, which is very effective for large squads of legionnaires. The well-disciplined legionnaires can use simple wooden watchtowers as citadels in addition to the sturdy stone guard towers used by all other warlords. The Senator can sometimes buy gladiators or net-wielding retiarii to supplement his legions. Besides the ordinary wizards who may take service with any warlord, the Senator may hire Augurs, priest-diviners of the Empire. Sometimes followers of the various esoteric cults extant in the Empire can also make their services available to bolster the Senator's forces. Abilities: *50% increase to gold income. *50% increase to trade value. *Watchtowers can be used as citadels. *Augurs can use scrying to gain information from distant places. *Revelers can bring forth satyrs and maenads from ancient forests. *Access to more wizard mercenaries. Leaders: *Senator *Centurion *Augur *Heliodromus *Leo *Renata *Reveler *Serpent Acolyte *Serpent Priest Units: *Velites *Hastatus *Principes *Triarius *Praetorian Guards *Ballistas *Gladiators (Mercenaries) *Retiarius (Mercenaries) Summons: *Maenads (Uncontrollable) *Satyrs (Uncontrollable) Strategy Why the senator? The senator uses large armies of human roman flavored units, led by generals and magicians. He conquers settlements and mines, gets a lot of gold with which he hires more armies and buys more armies and leaders to protect his holdings and swarm his opponents. I like the senator's reliability : There are powerful summoning classes in this game, but unless you cheat by save/load, bad luck on your first summons or inability to get the right resources quickly can really break you. There is little luck factor with the senator, your starting army is strong and the resources you need are plentiful. Apart for a timely appearance of good commander the luck factor is minimal. I played a number of games with him, on large maps with two opponents, and I can consistently win the “Count” level, even if it is challenging. Marquis is also winnable, but I haven't played enough. I read that playing against a team of 2 compatible AI is a great challenge, but I haven't tried it yet. The beginning The senator starts with two leaders and a respectable army. Put all but 4 or 5 of the starting troops with the general (the Centurion) and start exploring around you, attacking lightly defended settlements and mines in order to increase your gold and iron income as fast as you can. Oh, and you can either do suicide scouting with your senator, or keep him at your base for future use as a secondary back rank commander. You should of course attack the locations where your predict no or minimal losses first, and also, if you can do it without wasting time, eliminate small neutral stacks that can recapture your resources and force you to move back. Be careful with mines and fortified armies (on locations where you can see a shield), the senator's armies don't do a lot of damage and are thus at a great disadvantage since a shield diminishes one point of damage. Eventually your initial army will be worn down, but by this time you will have a healthy gold and iron balance and income to start getting serious. The middle game In short : Field a big army of Triarius exclusively, supplemented by Gladiators and Retiarii, and led by one or more spellcasters. Use smaller armies, with cheap back rank commanders, to capture new gold and iron producing sites, get rid of independents and recapture your resource locations. You want more info? Here's my overview of the senator's armies. Velites, Hastatus and Principes are similar. They are front line units without armor and normal (read not many) hit points and damage. The only unique trait is that they have a javelin they can throw once per combat if they can't attack with their hand to hand weapons. Triarius is different. First of all, it has got an armor rating of one, so it's a lot more durable than the other three. It also has more hit points. And most important, it's a mid rank unit, so it goes behind Velites, Hastatus and Principes, but can attack from the second row thanks to his long weapon. Obviously Triarius and the other three units don't play well together. The spear can be useful if you field a great number of the first three units, but if you do, the Triarius will hang out in the back, and you won't get the benefit either of their armor, or their long weapon. Praetorian Guards are tough frontline units, who would be great if only they weren't slow. That means that they can be useful in some defensive situations, but are not a good match for your main mobile armies. Ballistas cost a lot of iron, which might not be a problem in some situations, but, again, they are slow. So they might be useful in defense, but you have better attacking options. Gladiators and Retiarii appear together and cost 25 gold for two units. They are solid units : Gladiators attack twice for nice damage, and Retiarii can ensare an opponent once per battle, stunning him. Like Triarii they are mid rank units, so they are useless with Velites, Hastatus and Principes, but play nice with Triarii. However they don't have a long weapon, so they have to be on the first row to be useful. And you can't just put them there. The way the game works (as the last pages of the manual explain), is that each new unit gets a unit ID and units in the same rank are arranged according to their ID number. That means that newer units appear last, so, the advice I'm giving you is that if you want to use Gladiators and Retiarii, hire them BEFORE hiring Triarii. If you hire them to supplement a large army of Triarii, Gladiators and Retiarii will get stuck in the back and be mostly useless. (The manual states tha unit ID s are recycled when a unit dies, but you never know if a unit you hire will get an old ID and appear in front rather than in the back) Leaders The variety, strength and frequency of appearance of good leaders is a big selling point of the Senator, and it makes him a viable choice even for late game struggles. In short : Use back row spellcasters to attack your enemies, while triarii hold the line and attack from the first two rows. Now let's see some leaders Centurion This is a typical “General” unit, and you start with one. He is not expensive and while being a decent human unit, he is hardly a game changer. The problem is, he is a midrank unit. If you get him for a Triarius army, he will probably end up in the first row, and sooner or later, he will get butchered and your victorious army will be stuck in place until you can get another commander to it. So forget about him. Leo He is like the Centurion but can cast lvl 1 spells. Mid rank unit, so no thanks. Spellcasters These come in all flavors, Pyromancers, Heliodromes, Renatus, White and Dark, Water, and many others, the useful ones have lvl 2 spells. Contrary to other nations, you don't need to control a library for them to appear, and they appear even more frequently if you control one or more libraries. They can safely stay in the back row casting spells while the armored Triarii take the damage and inflict damage in small increments. Don't forget that you can choose which spells your spellcasters can use, and some choices are better than others. And the way the game works, spellcasters cast one spell per round as long as they are alive. That means that the longer the battle runs, the more opportunities they will have to attack the opposition and win the battle for you. Even normal level 2 spell casters have spells that affect entire ranks of opponents, and can help kill even the strongest armies, if they are protected. Spellcasters cost around 100 gold, and an old wizard (who has a level 3 spell) is even more expensive. They are more useful in long large battles, so keep them with the large armies you plan to use against the other players, don't waste them on small resource protecting or taking outfits. Priests Serpent priests or acolytes will appear regularly even if you don't control temples. They have poison based spells, which are not as useful as wizards' spells since they don't affect many of the dangerous mythical, magical or undead units your opponents field in battle. However they are also cheaper, and, as back row units, can lead your secondary armies, or supplement your larger ones. Reveler These units are useful for converting Ancient forests to your cause. The way the game works, ancient forests spew out independent animals regularly. These animals wander around the map and have the nasty habit of recapturing your mines and towns. With a senator, even if you defeat the army guarding an ancient forest (which can be as easy as 5 deer, or as a hard as a beholder and friends) the forest will keep spawing nasties, even if you station a unit on it. And here comes the Reveler : For the modest sum of 25 gold, he converts the Ancient Forest to your cause. The forest now spawns Satyrs and Maenads friendly to you, who wander randomly on the map attacking whatever they find. They are not very useful, since you can't hire and control them, but the fact that the forest no longer spawns neutral animals you have to take care of is a great asset to your cause. Revelers, even if individually useless in battles, are back rank commanders, so they can safely lead your armies if you have no better recruitment options. Augur Augurs, for a few gold can reveal a 3x3 grid on the map. And that's about it. Useful, but not a must-have ability. Strategies and the middle to late game Gold : With his +50% more to gold income and no summons, the Senator lives or dies by the gold his produces to keep his armies running. Try to keep at least 100 gold in the bank for hiring spellcasters. This is true especially for winter months, where your income stagnates. Remember, you can hire a leader only on the month in which he appears. Iron: Triarii cost 20 iron, so you'll need a steady stream of metal in order to keep making them. However Iron and Coal mines are plentiful and usually not well guarded, you keep producing iron in the winter, and, last but not least, you can use your gold to buy Iron, if you find you have a lot of gold but no iron to hire Triarii. And as a senator, you can buy 50 per cent more. Ain't that nice? Fortified locations (aka the shield) Mountains, mines, outposts, cities and castles have one or more shields in their description. That means that when a unit is defending in these squares, all damage inflicted on it is reduced by the number of the shields. So obviously you are at a disadvantage when attacking there, but with the Senator, you are even more at a disadvantage : Triarii do only 1-5 damage, contrary to say Troll Kings who do something like 15-28. One or two shields is not a big deal, and you must face these kind of odds fighting over mines and outposts, but 1, 2, or worse 3 shields are a great disadvantage and can make a huge difference when attacking another army. Your opponents A large Triarius army with a few spellcasters can kill almost anything. When you locate the enemy, try to conquer a nearby citadel and beef up your force, and/or bring reinforcements from your closest recruiting center. The AI in Count gets double of everything, and can have many respectable sized stacks, with many summons, constructs, undead etc. However, even when he sees you and is able to beat you, he will fail to attack you in full force and sometimes will quite suicidally separate his stack when you are in range, allowing you to engage his army piecemeal. The AI also doesn't like you flagging its resources, and can quite irrationally try to take them back. Other times you can just leave a commander alone in a plain to make your opponent come toward you and be able to attack him away from mountains. Another solution for you is to ignore the armies and attack the stronghold, though this is usually well guarded, and provides fortification to units inside. Nevertheless you will sometimes get into a situation where you will take a beating. An example can be undead who are ethereal and thus are seldom hit by your Triarii. A White Wizard and his anti undead spells can do wonders about them. Some other units, undead, or golems are pierce resistant, and you will have to bring preatorians who have slashing damage in order to damage them. What I mean to say is that your recruit roster is a toolbox, and as long as you have enough money, and you should have enough, because you are a senator and you protect your resources, you can rebuild your armies, hire the right commanders and come back with a vengeance. Good Luck bringing peace to Elysium! Category:Classes